When the electrostatic interactions of the phosphate groups in a DNA molecule with N+1 base pairs are taken into account, the variational equations of mechanical equilibrium for the molecule are a nonlinear system S of 6N equations for the 6N kinematical variables characterizing a configuration. When S is linearized, the resulting 6N by 6N matrix is essentially completely full. An efficient procedure will be described for solving S and determining the stability of the resulting equilibrium configurations. The system S depends on the concentration c of salt in the water in which the DNA is dissolved. Several examples (with N of the order of 500) will be given illustrating a remarkably strong influence of the parameter c on the equilibrium configurations of intrinsically curved DNA. Moreover, several of the bifurcation diagrams presented will show regions in which more than one locally stable equilibrium configuration occurs at a single value of c.
Back to Cellular Mechanics
Back to SES Abstracts
Back to The 41st Annual SES Technical Meeting